Help with ancient coins please..

Hi everybody!
I hope you are all well. I would like some help identifying these ancient coins which came to me recently as part of a job lot. It is far beyond my area of expertise- I have tried various identification sites but could not say with any confidence what they are. I would be really grateful for any pointers you could give me- I'm so far out of my depth with ancient coinage, and the harder I look, the more confusion I seem to attain. I appreciate your time, and thank you in advance for any help you could offer- emperor, denomination, and if possible scarcity/value would be useful for cataloging. Many thanks.
Best Wishes!
Rich

 

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The first is a coin of Licinius I, the second Valentinian I, the third is an anonymous Byzantine follis.

 

Welcome to CoinTalk Ancients, Richard!

I'll let someone else handle the ID details (edited: JA posted the IDs while I was editing the pictures), but I've joined the image pairs and posted them as full images rather than thumbnails. It makes studying the coins much easier

Posting the size and weight of coins is generally helpful.

 

Thanks! Such a swift response!
If it helps the weights and diameters (at widest points) are:
Licinius: 3.4g, 2cm diameter.
Valentinian: 2.9g, 1.8cm
Byzantine: 9.2g, 4cm
Thank you for for your warm welcome, I really appreciate your boundless knowledge and enthusiasm to help others.
Best Regards,
Rich

 

Welcome

 

Perhaps you will get the Ancients bug now. Welcome.

 

I really hope so- I will make every attempt to juggle it with all my other coin interests! The designs are wonderful- such regal and imposing portraits. That, and the fascination of handling something that old, and the history surrounding it is truly amazing. I will make every attempt to squeeze an ancients interest into my numismatic calendar.

 

Here is an example of the Licinius from my collection, in a higher grade, just to give you a better idea of the devices. Yours comes from the Cyzicus mint, mine Siscia. Your variety has a captive to the right of Jupiter. Mine does not.

 

Thanks, I am starting to understand some of the symbols on the coins- yours is stunning- such a striking portrait- you can see every hair. Thank you so much for your priceless help- I will endeavor to buy more of these and will share any finds of interest with this wonderful forum.

 

Feel free to ask us a million questions before you buy. We'll help you get the best coins for the best prices.

 

welcome aboard richard!

 

Thanks, I really appreciate it. You are all so kind. If there is any help I can offer with British coins, particularly Victorian Farthing varieties and error 1860-1901, but with a working knowledge of most British post medieval periods, please don't hesitate to ask. I have a thirst for any numismatic knowledge, so I will be back!!

 

wow, we really are quite polite, content and honestly coin-helpful, eh?

=> man, I love our CT ancient coin-gang ... it really is fun and 100% addictive logging-on to this cool site (it's like a fun and exciting waterslide-ride and/or worm-hole to the fricken dark-side)

keep-up the awesome work ... we rock!!

 

Man, I'm glad you're back. Ooops, did I say thsat outloud?

 

I want to chime in here as well...

As a new collector of ancients this forum has a great variety of collectors who are helpful, knowledgeable, friendly and have helped me tremendously. I couldn't be more grateful.

 

Welcome Richard !!!

Since everyone has I'D'ed the coins for you and all here will always offer any help and insights we have, the attribution can be further clarified by on-line sites such as RIC (Wildwinds) and even acsearch or any others that our members provide on their own..
http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/judaea/t.html

http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=608602

Good luck and always feel free to follow the forum threads and post away....

 

re: the love fest:

This forum has definitely been my best ancient coin find. The people here are super friendly and knowledgeable and sometimes funny too.

 

I have two inexpensive books and a web site to suggest for newbies:

The Handbook of Roman Imperial Coins by Van Meter, if I bought only one Roman Imperial book, this would be it.

ERIC by Rasiel Suarez - lots of good pictures, the 2005 issue fits nicely on my book shelf, the next edition is much larger and costs a bit more.

John Jeneck's web site has an obverse look-up page - http://www.jhecoins.com/obverselegends.htm

 

This is a terrific site and I appreciate everyone's knowledge and willingness to help one another. I have about 75lbs of coins (US and world) that I have collected over the past 50 years that are in a box in US. I live in Ecuador so can't get to them often. I look forward to trying to stump you all one of these days!

Peter Fischer

 

Haha, those World collectors are pretty sharp